Women, girls, and technology: Close role models versus heroic narratives
When the first virtual reality headsets became available to the public, a problem quickly emerged that had previously gone unnoticed. Women experienced significantly more dizziness than men when using them due to physiological differences related to balance and ear structure. In a highly male-dominated tech industry, product development overlooked half the population. How could this happen?
The anecdote illustrates how companies risk missing out on business opportunities by failing to consider the diversity of their users. But it also highlights a structural problem in the tech industry: if design and development teams lack diversity, the solutions they create may fail to be inclusive and effective for the entire population.
For Liliana Arroyo, researcher at the Esade Institute for Social Innovation and former Director General of Digital Society in the Government of Catalonia, the issue of female underrepresentation in the tech sector is critical. On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we talked to her about the lack of female representation in the tech sector.
Article published in Esade Do Better